I Love The Night Snogging Edition
by Col. Hammer
Summary: Synopsis: With Dumbledore’s murder at the end of his 6th year, Harry has some choices to make. To bad a young vampire will be making most of them for him…
1. I Love the Night

I Love The Night (Snogging Edition)

Synopsis: With Dumbledore's murder at the end of his 6th year, Harry has some choices to make. To bad a young vampire will be making most of them for him…

Disclaimer: I'll let you know if I own any of this, but as far as this chapter goes I own nothing. None of what you see her is mine. It belongs to J.K. Rowling, except the quoted song which the boys in Blue Oyster Cult (and their label) own.

Harry sat alone with his folded Invisibility Cloak in a worn, squishy, red armchair staring into the roaring fire in the dark Gryffindor Common Room. His fellow classmates had all turned in early as the depression from events the night before, along with the unseasonable cold weather for early June, and the manic exertions of the day caused many to seek the comforts of their own (or their loved one's) bed.

Or they're parents had come to take them home early after the events of the night before had hit the news.

That morning the students of Hogwarts had woken up to the fact that their Headmaster had been killed in the night by their Potions Master, and that others had been injured when Death Eaters had joined in an assault on the school.

Naturally, the students knew this not because of any official announcements but rather due to the school's fast flowing and fertile rumor mill. By the time the students had congregated in the Great Hall for their breakfast the wild theories concerning the events of the night before abounded, and the official announcement made by the remaining staff did little to curb the panic.

With the exception of those in Slytherin, the students of Hogwarts had considered the likelihood of surviving the coming summer and chosen to 'seize the day' as it were. So when students began imbibing their caffeinated beverage of choice, and as they're minds woke to the fact of their own mortality things began to get ugly. People that were single got together forming couples almost as fast as couples broke up as a result of the students being honest with each other and (perhaps for the first time) themselves.

The only relief from the puddle of tears, hormones and frustrations that breakfast had degenerated into came in the form of a young female's voice shouting out that she 'didn't want to die a virgin without a good snog!' Seeing a extremely scared Peeves careening above their heads across the Great Hall with Moaning Myrtle hot on his tail broke the mood and gave everyone something to laugh about.

"Hey Myrtle! Aren't you fifty years too late for that!" Dean Thomas yelled pointing out the obvious irony to the demented ghost.

McGonagall's choice as Acting Headmistress to have classes that day despite what transpired the night before and the poor mood of the students that morning seemed to Harry a plan doomed to failure. He wasn't proven wrong.

The Slytherin students hadn't even bothered showing up to their classes as they had marched from their table back to their dorms announcing their intent to hold a victory party, and looking back on it Harry figured that while their motivation was evil, they probably had a good idea.

Harry's own Transfiguration class ended about five minutes after it started when McGonagall started in on Seamus Finnegan for not even attempting his class assignment to look up ten common transfigurations used in household cleaning. Since his mom did things 'the muggle way' as part of living with his muggle father Seamus was planning on doing the same research as Harry had (which was to ask his girlfriend Ginny how her mom cleaned at home), but couldn't find the time to do so (as Ginny was busy snogging Harry every free moment).

Before McGonagall knew what hit her Seamus had informed her in no uncertain terms what he thought of learning cleaning charms in the middle of a war, that his homework had already been inserted into a rather uncomfortable spot in her anatomy with the help of a fellow by the name of Mr. Clean, and if she didn't like his opinion she could 'kiss my Irish ass!', before stomping from the room pausing only to reach over and give Lavender Brown a real good snog.

When Lavender jumped up to follow Seamus the rest of the class followed suit leaving only Harry and Hermione in class with a stunned McGonagall still clutching a few collected assignments. It was then that Harry realized the only reason he was still in the class was he had nowhere else he'd rather be. Ginny & Ron were with their family hovering over their wounded brother Bill. Bill had fought in the Death Eater attack against the school that resulted in the murder of Dumbledore had himself almost been killed by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback .

By lunch the remainder of the student body had mutinied and the professors had given up on holding afternoon classes. Suddenly finding herself with free time Hermione also chose to 'seize the day'.

"Harry?", she asked him.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"I think Seamus has the right idea!", Hermione said with determination in her voice, and grabbing his hand, led him from his half-eaten lunch.

"Um, yeah. I mean, what!?", said a confused Harry. While he was lonely for female companionship Harry had one girl in mind for this, and it wasn't the girl who had been like a sister to him throughout his time at Hogwarts.

It was with some relief for Harry that Hermione's confident steps lead them into the Library and not a broom closet. With the school in a sort of semi-chaos Madame Pince was not in attendance so they were able to infiltrate and research the subjects of the Restricted Section to their hearts content. The two then spent the rest of the day and almost past dinner copying advanced charms, hexes, and curses that they might need for the coming war, the first of which was a simple incantation that would remove the Ministry's Underage Magic trace from their wands and person.

Upon entering the Great Hall for dinner the two students were ceased their conversation about the spells found in such tomes as '1001 Ways to Melt Faces' as they were greeted by the sight of Ron sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, his dinner hardly having been touched, and trying his best to ignore Seamus and Lavender snogging madly three seats away.

Ron gently brushed off his friends explanations concerning Lavender new relationship as he stated 'I knew we were drifting apart', a statement which confused Harry as Ron and Lavender had seemed to have had their faces super glued to each other just the night before last. Ron did seem to get angry when his friends told him what Seamus had done to McGonagall in class, but he calmed down when Hermione reminded him Seamus was as high on Voldemort's hit list as she was due to his parentage.

"The whole school went nuts today.", Hermione eloquently explained.

Ron's spirits began to improve and they all began to eat dinner before he mentioned that both he and Ginny had returned for the last night after the healers reported their brother Bill was not in mortal danger. Bill would not likely become a werewolf due to the injuries he had taken the night before, but he probably would have a craving for raw meat during full moons.

"His face is pretty badly scratched, though", Ron explained.

"How did Fleur's react ?", Hermione asked, concerned about Bill's fiancé.

"Pretty good, actually. When mom asked if she would leave him because he wasn't handsome anymore, Fleur said that she was 'good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk!'. She also said that the scars made him look rugged." Ron said with a shrug.

At that Hermione leaned across Harry who was sitting between his two friends, her eyes intently studying Ron's face. At first Ron didn't really notice, but as Hermione began drawing her index finger across her line of sight of his face he got a little self-conscious.

"Hermione? What are you doing?", Ron asked.

"I think she's trying to figure out what kind of scar would make you look more rugged.", Harry observed.

"Hmmm, not much to work with. Maybe we should try an eye-patch.", Hermione contemplated aloud mock-seriously before giggling.

Ron shared a look with Harry over the head of their giggling friend. The fact that Hermione almost never giggled was cause for concern.

"Are you feeling okay Hermione?", Ron asked with concern.

"Sure I am you 'silly leetil boi' !", Hermione exclaimed while trying her best to mimic Fleur accent from several years before.

Ron and Harry shared another look, but before they could react Hermione gained a death grip on Ron's arm and was dragging him out of the Great Hall to attend to 'Prefect Duties'.

Perplexed at his friends' behavior Harry began to make his own way up to Gryffindor Tower. With luck he'd run into Ginny and –

'and… what? What will you do with her, Harry?', he asked himself. 'Dumbledore's funeral is tomorrow and you're breaking up with her afterward for her own protection. You're going to have to start hunting Horocrux soon and the only way to do that is to not return to Hogwarts. And when that happens you won't be there to protect her and you can't take her with you and…'

Harry winced as his thoughts began to spiral out into dark and painful territory. The events of his surprisingly busy day had distracted him from what the future held. All the coming sacrifices that he would have to make to see the tyranny of Voldemort ended, especially as he apparently was the only one capable of doing the job thanks to a prophecy began to weigh heavily on him.

"Damn Trelawney!", Harry said aloud. "If only she was a _total_ fraud. Damn Dumbledore for giving Voldemort a reason to take her seriously. Damn his spy for telling him about the prophecy, and damn Wormtail for being a coward!"

"Such language!", said the Fat Lady in her portrait at the entrance to the Gryffindor Tower.

"Just open the damn door!", Harry growled, non-pulsed at finding his feet had already carried him to his destination without any conscious thought.

With loud 'harrumph' the door swung back and Harry stomped into the Common Room with a dark look on his face. Not seeing Ginny, Harry's mood plummeted further and he tried to make his way as quickly as possible to his bed while avoiding stepping on all the couples that seemed to be lounging or cuddling on every available horizontal surface (including the floor).

Half way up the stairs to his room a voice shouted out his name. Harry had just enough time to see a red-haired blur nimbly thread a path through the minefields of couples snogging on the staircase before it crashed into him. Leaning against the rail to help keep his balance he looked down at the person his arms had unconsciously embraced only to see the eyes of his girlfriend gazing back into his.

His dark thoughts fled his mind and their lips smiled before locking together for a timeless eternity. Stopping to gasp for air Harry trailed kisses over her closed eyes and forehead before clutching her close to his chest.

"Looks like somebody missed me.", Ginny teased while running her hands over Harry's back beneath his robes. "I wasn't even gone for a day."

Ginny's words brought Harry up short before he could tease her back. Remembering that these were the last few hours he could hold her like this before circumstances would pull them apart Harry stiffened up. Ginny noticed this and began to ask what was wrong but Harry silenced her with a kiss.

Coming back up for air again Harry changed the subject again by filling Ginny in on the events of the day. Surprisingly, Ginny didn't act surprised at anything Harry had to say. When he asked why that was Ginny waved an arm to take in the entire Common Room, saying "Didn't you notice all the couples in here? Half the people in here aren't even in Gryffindor."

Looking back across the room Harry noticed the number of robes and ties that bore the colors and patches of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Houses. Harry was slightly taken aback at the various pieces of feminine undergarments dangling from the lighting fixtures.

"Looks like our classmates are taking the Sorting Hat's whole 'School Unity' idea to the next level.", Harry observed before adding, "I wonder what house has as its official underwear pink, thong bikini panties with little red hearts on it?"

The two laughed for a while at that before Harry sobered somewhat.

"I talked to Ron earlier. He said the doctors told all of you Bill was going to be okay but he's a little scratched up now."

"Did he tell you what Fleur said about his scars?", Ginny asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, even though she sounded every French and arrogant I'm glad to see his scars aren't effecting their love.", said Ginny.

"Since when did you start calling her by her real name?", Harry asked.

"Since she proved to the family that she really loves Bill for who he is and not for any of the superficial reasons we thought she did. I'll probably go back to calling her Phlegm when I get home, though, because then I'll have to put up with helping her and mom organizing the wedding and try on all the Bridesmaid's dresses she'll be having me model.", Ginny explained.

"Well, I didn't think her remarks were arrogant at all. Perhaps overly French but on the whole she was just being your average female", Harry stated with a smirk.

At that Ginny took advantage of Harry's arms being wrapped around her to knock the wind out of him with a quick right jab to the ribs. When Harry could draw in a breath without pain he stood back up and started to laugh while Ginny tried her best to frown and not laugh along with him.

"No insulting the Sisterhood!", Ginny spoke while wagging her finger at him in admonishment.

"I surrender! Merlin Ginny, you play rough!", Harry exclaimed. Leaning back against the railing Harry paused to take her outfit. This meant his jaw began to drop when he noticed how hot she actually looked. The red turtleneck shirt, black spandex pants, and white trainers didn't expose her skin or cleavage they way the skirts and dresses of Lavender's or Parvati's did, but being skin tight it didn't have to.

"With six older brothers around you learn the rules fast!", Ginny said while waking Harry from his stupor.

"What rules?"

"Exactly!", Ginny said while grinning.

Moving back into close proximity to each other Ginny snuggled back into his arms. Laying her head on his shoulder with her hands over his heart Harry cursed the lack of decent room to sit.

'I could take her into my dorm room..' Harry mused, but the guilt that he would feel in the morning kept him from asking her if she wanted to. Well, that and the fact that if Ron caught them he'd die before Voldemort and he could find out if the Prophecy was true or not.

'But what a way to go!', Harry mused.

"Speaking of my brothers," Ginny said, startling Harry out of his thoughts and making him wonder if she could read his mind, "did you say Hermione and Ron are on Prefect Patrol?"

"Yeah, they started right after dinner. Something about stepped-up patrols after last night."

"That's strange.", Ginny mused. "Aurors are supposed to patrol with prefects at night, but that's not supposed to start until an hour after dinner, and neither Ron nor Hermione are supposed to have to do it tonight because they have the night off."

"Maybe they're covering for somebody?", Harry asked.

Ginny head moved from his shoulder and gave him a look that clearly said that she wasn't buying it.

"What?", Harry asked.

"Oh Merlin!", Ginny exclaimed in sudden realization while striking (rather gently) Harry's chest.

"What wrong?"

"I've got Prefect Patrol Duty tonight. Or rather, this morning from 3 till 5.", said Ginny, leaving Harry to wonder if he should thank or curse Dumbledore for not making him a Prefect.

'Thank him because I don't have to be awake at an ungodly hour, or curse him for not being able to draw Patrol Duty with Ginny at those same hours?'. Harry asked himself.

"I need to go to bed now if I'm going to get any sleep tonight!", Ginny complained.

'Definitely curse him..', Harry thought before remembering that Snape had already done the deed for him the night before on the Astronomy Tower.

Ginny missed Harry's increasingly somber expression as she look over the still-filled Common Room. Hearing a girl's quiet moan from behind her she looked down the stairs.

"Dennis Creevy!"

Harry gave a start as Ginny voice took on the quality of her mother's at full tirade.

"Dennis! She's only a second year! Keep your hands above the waist or else-"

"Or else what?", asked the annoyed third year Dennis who had his hands full with a slightly younger Ravenclaw whose anatomy he was exploring with all the interest of a pre-healer student.

"Or else I'll sick her brother on you. He's right over there.", Ginny pointed below.

At first Dennis paled at her words, but a quick look through the staircase railing put his worries to rest. "It looks like he's a little to busy right now to be a hypocrite about things. Wouldn't you agree Ginny?", he said with a Slytherin-worthy smirk.

Ginny did a double-take at Dennis' words and observing said brother Harry had to agree.

"Alright. Enough of this!", said a determined Ginny while pointing her drawn wand at her throat . "Sonorus."

"OKAY EVERYONE! THE COMMON ROOM IS CLOSED!"

"You can't do that! It's only nine!", someone shouted.

"I'M NOT SAYING YOU HAVE TO SEPARATE, JUST THAT THE COMMON ROOM IS CLOSED. YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO HOME, BUT YOU CAN'T STAY HERE! GO SNOG IN A HALLWAY OR YOUR OWN DORMS!", Ginny explained.

People complained but began getting up and in many cases putting on discarded items of clothing before heading towards either their dorms or the castle halls. Meanwhile, Ginny 'finite'-ed the Sonorus charm and returned to Harry's arms.

"I admire the way you handle a crowed", Harry said.

"That's not all I'm good at handling.", Ginny replied while licking her dry lips in a manner that captured all of Harry's attention.

"Yeah, um, what?"

Ginny answered by standing up on her toes and giving Harry a final, cavity clearing kiss that lingered forever before backing away from him with a sad smile. With a muttered 'goodnight' she turned away to nervously trot down the boys' stairs and up the girls' to go to her dorm.

Too keyed up to go to his bed Harry took the copied notes from that day's research down to the chair by the fire. He then spent the next three hours sorting out the truly useful spells that were quick to cast from those that would be too elaborate to use against Death Eaters after the first exchange. This took some time, but he figured that Ron and Hermione would be happy to go over them with him when they got back from their Patrol.

By midnight, however, Harry was under no illusions that either of his friends were performing serious business of any school-related kind. His initial moments of panic at their delayed return brought to mind his conversation with Ginny about them.

'Wait, if she was implying what I think she was then that means…'

The almost empty room rang with the sound of a palm slapping a forehead.

Harry at first was annoyed that his friends hadn't told him anything about their changing relationship, but then figured they had their reasons. Thinking about relationships however brought to mind thoughts of Ginny and what he had to do the next day.

'I love her so much, though. If it was just that Voldemort could to find out about her using his spies then I can be sure that breaking up publicly with her will protect her. If he can get though my occlumency shields and read my mind then this will all be for nothing! It won't matter if I broke up with her or not then, and all this pain will be fore nothing.'

'But I can't take her with me because I can't protect her while looking for the horocrux at the same time. The curse that shriveled Dumbledore's arm when he went after the Ring proves that!'

With the walls closing in on him the empty room seemed smaller and darker than the old cupboard under the stairs that he'd grown up in at his aunt and uncle's house. Standing up Harry put on his Cloak and activated the Marauders Map to see if anyone was on the other side of the door before exiting Gryffindor Tower.

_That night her kiss told me it was over_

_I walked out late into the dark_

With no destination in mind Harry resolved to sneak around without being discovered using the Aurors and Prefects on duty as practice. While ducking into an alcove to make sure Mad-Eye Moody (the only Auror he knew of with a magic eye capable of looking through an Invisibility Cloak), Harry realized that he had moved not a moment to soon.

"So, Auror Tonks.", said a voice walking towards him from down the hall.

'Sigh'. "Yes Prefect Michael Conner?", asked an obviously annoyed Tonks.

"Why are do you think we're having this unseasonable weather? Is it like last summer when the Dementors were breading uncontrollably and causing the weird weather?"

"Yes. Just like when your parents made you.", Tonks mumbled just loud enough for Harry to hear.

"Pardon me, Auror Tonks, but I couldn't hear what you said."

"I said 'yes, just like was reported thru my floo.' The Ministry gave the Auror Department an emergency bulletin thru our floo's this morning hoping word wouldn't get out to the public again.", Tonks made up on the fly.

"Auror Tonks?"

"Yes?", she groaned.

"May I call you Nymphadora?"

'Growl'.

"Auror Tonks?"

"Yes?", she growled.

"You're a metamorphmagus?"

'Sigh'. "Yes."

"Can you like, turn into Fortuna Flasks?", asked a hopeful Michael.

Harry paled at this. Fortuna Flasks was the name of an 'adult' witch model and was Miss April for Playwizard Monthly. As the name suggests, her 'flasks' were her main attraction.

Not that Harry would ever look at such a magazine, seeing as he had a nice, lovely girlfriend.

Okay. He read it, but just for the articles.

How Michael could be so uncouth as to ask Tonks if she could turn into Miss Flasks was beyond Harry, however. The fact that Tonks worked in a wizard-dominated department of the Ministry insured though that she knew who Michael was talking about.

"Excuse me?!", demanded Tonks.

"I mean, if you tried to take on her appearance where would you get all the extra mass to make her…", Michael started gesturing around his chest with his hands.

"Flasks?", asked a perplexed Tonks.

"Yeah?".

Harry palmed his face, realizing that the reason Michael could ask a woman such a horrible question was that he was the type of Ravenclaw that did indeed read Playwitch Monthly for its articles! 'Moron.'

"Are you saying that Miss Flasks is fatter than me?", Tonks asked sweetly.

'Just say yes and you might live a little longer, Conner', Harry thought.

"Um, yes? I suppose her 'Flasks' would have a high fat content.", explained a perplexed Michael who was just beginning to realize the danger he was in..

"Good boy.", Tonks said while patting Michael on his head like a pet.

"Though I think an engorgement charm might-", Michael's words were cut off by Tonk's hand covering his mouth.

Tonks pointed up a nearby staircase. "Look Michael! Did you see that?"

"What."

"I thought I saw something. Something that made my Auror Sense tingle!", she said dramatically while pushing her fingers against the sides of her head and gritting her teeth in concentration.

Harry could barely contain his laughter as Michael fell for the gag hook, line, and sinker.

"Don't worry, Auror Tonks! I was in the D.A. last year so I know how to fight. I'll protect you!", Michael practically shouted.

"No Michael, I can't let you risk it! I'll hold it off while you go to the Great Hall and report to Auror Savage. He'll send back-up and then we can take whatever this thing is out.", Tonks said.

Tonks waited until Michael was around the corner before bursting into a fit of giggles. Hurriedly casting a corporeal Patronus charm Tonks spoke aloud to the silvery, massive, four legged creature.

"Savage, keep that Michael kid busy for the rest of the night or else you'll have to fill out a missing persons report for him. Understand? Tonks."

Tonks sighed and looked around the hallway as her Patronus streaked away toward the Great Hall. Smiling at the quiet she now enjoyed she sat down in an window alcove and with a muttered 'lumos' began panning the focused beam of light over the portraits like a muggle torch, much to the annoyance of said portraits.

"I always wanted to do that to you nosy portraits when I was a kid, now I can do it all night long if I want. And get paid for it to!", she said to the angry pictures.

"Whatever, 'Flasks!'", one of them shouted back.

Realizing he might not be going anywhere for a while due to his failure to cast a muffling charm on his shoes before starting his evening walk Harry went back to looking at his map. Satisfied that Mad-eye was not in attendance on the school grounds Harry let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The sound of Tonks' rubber soled army boots scuffing against the stone floor as she stood up reminded Harry that she was nearby and made him worry if she had somehow in the midst of her fun detected his presence. Looking up he saw that she was facing the other way though, her wand drawn and all her attention focused on the mist that seemed to be slowly forming at her feet.

Unconsciously following Tonks lead Harry drew his wand. Suspecting the mist to be caused by Dementors Harry began to concentrate on a happy memory as the mist began to migrate in his direction.

'Kissing Ginny earlier felt wonderful!', Harry remembered, but the happy memory turned sour as he considered that it was the last he would be giving her for the foreseeable future. This meant that Harry was beginning to panic as he saw that he mist was now streaming down the nearby staircase from above as well as coming up it from below. Turning around he saw that it was even advancing toward him from back wince he had come.

"Expecto Patronum!", Tonks verbally cast as the mist was now at the top of her boots and so thick that Harry couldn't see the floor she stood on.

Once again the huge beast that was Tonk's Patronus shot from her wand, pacing around in search of a threat before giving up and sitting before its summoner with a questioning look, as if asking 'now why did you bother me again?'

Harry stayed still as he watched Tonks for a reaction. She didn't seemed to be chilled at all, and he noted that the windows and walls didn't show the usual frosting normally produced by the sudden drop in temperature that comes from the presence of a Dementor.

Tonks' chest rose as she began standing on her toes and breathing deeply through her nose. Several deep breaths latter she rolled back on the balls of her feet as a contented smile passed over her face.

Before her the forgotten Patronus let out a mournful howl, a sound that seemed to express a deep longing, and at the same time, a challenge or demand to begin a hunt.

Tonks gaze, which had become glassy-eyed, snapped somewhat into focus again as she began to mumble aloud, "Yes, Remus. He's outside… I'll see if he's seen any Dementors…"

At that she proceeded to hurry down the stairs while giggling softly, a light blush of her cheeks almost covered by flaming orange with red streaks her hair had turned.

Harry was perplexed at Tonks words. 'It's the full moon tonight. Without Snape around to brew Wolfsbane potion Remus has no control in his wolf form! I love Remus like an uncle, but even I'm not that brave. Being around him once like that in Third Year was enough for me.'

Looking down to cast that muffling charm on his shoes Harry noticed that the mist had already surrounded him and was steadily rising above the level of his ankles. Casting the charm anyway he followed it up with a lumos to see if he could see the floor below him.

Finding the mist to be impenetrable he tried to run his fingers through it, noticing that rather than being the cold fog associated with Dementors it was as warm as body heat and moist to the point of being sticky.

Straightening up Harry received a head rush as several scents assaulted him. The smell of the Qudditch pitch on a sunny, spring day mixed with that of the shampoo and perfume Ginny liked to wear took hold of him, and he almost cast off his cloak to give him more access to the scent.

_The misty gloom seemed to soak up my sorrow_

Realizing that he was acting exactly Tonks had moments ago Harry shook himself while analyzing what was happening.

"Amortentia?", Harry breathed softly, still fighting his own bodies reaction to what was possibly the fumes of the strongest love potion known to man. Having experienced the fumes from the potion earlier in the year Harry couldn't figure out how these fumes were so much stronger. The effects were almost as bad as taking the potion itself.

"Could you put the potion in aerosol form?", Harry wondered aloud. A potions accident could explain why the mist was coming up from the floor below if the accident happened in the potions classroom, down in the dungeons, but having the mist fall from the floor above put paid to that theory.

"Is this another Death Eater attack?", he said, almost without a tinge of fear. The fumes he had breathed where having a new effect on him, as a languid calm was settling over him. His fear and anxiety seemed deadened and limbs slow to respond as he now had to fight with himself in an effort to warn others. Moving toward the stairs he was just about to head down towards the Great Hall to warn the Aurors when he heard what sounded like a clicking noise from the floor above.

_The further I went on_

_I felt a spreading calm_

Stepping up to the first landing Harry stopped to get a good view of whatever was making the noise, and was stunned at the strangely familiar vision in a white, diaphanous gown silhouetted against the pale orb of the full moon. With a veil draped over it's face this form, which was definitely female by the way the robes became practically see-thru with the moon back-lighting it proceeded to move down the hall before turning a corner and moving out of sight.

_Then suddenly my eyes were bathed in light_

_And the lovely lady in white was by my side_

Gathering his wits as best he could Harry starred at the his map before him, realizing that the scents he had smelled before were fading in the air after the person had turned the corner going away from him.

'Could she be spreading the gas?', Harry asked himself while running a hand through his now-sweating hair. Hurrying to follow the woman he noticed that his map showed a moving blip representing the woman, but there was no name attached to the figure.

'What in the name of Merlin is going on here?'

Seeing the figure on the map moving up the main staircase toward the third floor Harry moved to take a shortcut that would put him on the same floor near the Room of Requirement. Hurrying up the narrow, dim stairs he marked that 'she' was heading in his direction from the opposite way.

On a hunch Harry closed the map and hid behind a suit of armor almost directly across from the entrance to the Room of Requirement to wait for the 'Lady' to come to him. Seeing another wave of mist drift in to cover the floor he began to relax as the gas took its toll on his focus.

"Click, click, click, click…", the unhurried pace of the Lady announcing her approach long before Harry could make out Her figure in the hall.

"Click, click, click, click…", tapped a gentle tattoo on his mind as She made her way with a hip rolling sashay toward Harry.

With his attention totally wrapped up in the image of Her form Harry was surprised to realize She had stopped directly in front of him. Craning his neck to try to get a better view of Her face through the shadow of Her veil he almost fell over when She spun in place and began walking back the way She came.

She quickly reversed herself, however, but Her unhurried pace did not change at all.

"Click, click, click, click…"

After Her third pass a door appeared in the wall opposite Harry's hiding space and She changed direction to pass through it. Turning the doorknob She paused to look over Her shoulder at him from beneath Her veil before entering the room, the closing door muffling the clicking of Her steps before disappearing entirely.

_She said, 'Like me I see your walking alone_

_Won't you please stay.'_

_I couldn't look away_

Standing stunned in the heavily misted hallway Harry had to pick his jaw up off the floor before groaning in frustration. "How the hell did The Lady know I was there!", he asked aloud. This brought him up short. "And how long have I been calling her 'The Lady'?"

_I love the night_

_The day is okay, and the sun can be fun_

_But I live to see those rays slip away_

Reopening the map Harry noted that for once it was registering whoever was inside the Room of Requirement. His joy at this was tempered by the knowledge that the blip indicating Her position now had attached to it the name 'The Lady'.

"Some help you are", Harry said to the map.

'Mssrs. Padfoot, Prongs, Mooney, and Wormtail agree that we are indeed at great help to wizard and witched everywhere.'

'Mssrs. Padfoot and Mooney especially agree that we are definitely a help to all witches everywhere… except the really ugly ones… because we have standards.'

"Mischief managed!", Harry said cutting them off as he refolded the map.

The map was not done, however, as it continued to have writing appear even as Harry started pacing before the entrance to the Room.

'Mssrs. Mooney and Padfoot think that the mischief has only begun.'

'Mssrs. Prongs and Wormtail second their illustrious compatriots opinion, and opine themselves that Prongslet will be on the receiving end of said mischief.'

'Miss Lilly disagrees, and at the very least hopes her Pronslet remembers how to keep his pants on.'

'The Lady agrees with the fine gentlemen above, and intends to help Her Prongslet forget entirely what clothes are for, Miss Lily.'

'Tramp!'

As Harry paced in front of the invisible doorway to the Room he asked himself what it was he wanted.

"What is it I want? Well, I want to know who this Lady is."

Halting in his pacing his train of thought derailed for a moment, before he continued walking at a faster pace.

"No, that's not all I want. I want this prophecy about me to go away. I want Voldemort to freakin' die! I want justice for my Godfather and to kill the Traitors- Wormtail and Snape, and I want to be able to date Ginny without worry that someone out to kill me will try to get to me through her!"

"Bang!"

Harry was startled when the door to the Room opened inward on its own and slammed into the wall. Looking around to make sure no one had heard and was coming to check on the noise he looked at himself to make sure he was completely covered by his Invisibility Cloak. Moving toward the door with his wand drawn he paused to ask himself if he should go get help.

'If this gas is all over the school there's no chance in hell I'll be able to get Ron and Hermione to help me, because they'll be too busy with each other to concentrate. Same goes for everybody else, even Tonks and werewolf Remus I suppose.'

'And Ginny?' he asked himself. 'If I go get her… then I'll be too distracted myself.'

Cautiously continuing forward into the Room he felt as though he was physically struck by an even greater wave of the Amortentia gas than he had already dealt with. Now staggering forward he heard the doors slam shut behind him with a deafening boom of finality.

With the warm, humid mist now completely surrounding him Harry gave up pretending that whoever was in there with him didn't know he was there and slid the cloak of his sweating body along with his robe. Upon doing so a stream of pale moonlight shown down from over head illuminating a tall rectangular object covered with by a dusty white sheet.

Feeling slightly better now that his Cloak was off Harry walked up to the very familiar object and stripped off it's covering. Knowing what the object probably was did not however prepare him for being proved right.

"The Mirror of Erised. I guess the Room wants to help me to narrow down what it is that will make me happy."

Harry stared at it.

His reflection stared back.

Harry tapped his foot, and so did his reflection.

"If your confused, Mirror, I'll tell you that I'm most definitely not satisfied with my current circumstances! Nor do I want any wool socks. That was somebody else…", said Harry, whose impatience remarks drifted off into a murmur of depression.

With that statement the reflection in the mirror changed. Harry saw himself wearing shining gold plate armor sans a helmet, holding his wand in his right, gauntleted hand and a warhammer in his left. At his feet were stacked the bodies of Voldemort, Wormtail, Bellatrix, and Snape, while behind him stood similarly armor his friends from the D.A. and his allies from the Order of the Phoenix.

It warmed his heart to see his friends, all of whom were alive and cheering him, but the most important thing Harry saw was who stood beside in armor that gleamed so much it was almost blindingly white.

It was Ginny who stood beside him at his right hand, a blood covered Sword of Gryffindor clutched in her right hand while her left arm was draped over his shoulder, a smile upon her lips. With a wink at him she sheathed her sword in the stack of bodies in front of him before proceeding to plant a chaste kiss upon his reflections right cheek.

Harry flinched at the feel of a pair of moist lips kissing his own cheek and quickly turned around wildly looking for whoever did it.

"I know you're out there! Show yourself! Lumos!"

But Harry was only greeted with the sight of the white mist, and the mist refused to answer back.

Turning back to the mirror he reached up to touch his cheek and could still fell where the lips had caressed it. However, the glare of reflected light hurt Harry's eyes, so with a muttered finite he waved the wand out to the side, extinguishing it. Immediately he saw reflected back at him in the moonlight the sight of Ginny, dressed as she was earlier that night snuggling against him under his raised arm.

Harry bit back a scream when he realized he could feel her left arm about his waist as well as her hair tickling the underside of his arm.

Looking down in shock Harry saw no-one there, and began to drop his arm. Shifting his gaze back to his reflection he saw mirror Ginny scoot out from under his dropping arm before grabbing it with both hands, a contented smile on her face.

He could still fell hands upon him.

_I love the night_

_There's so much that I can show and give to you_

_If you will welcome me tonight_

'Well, two can play at this game.', Harry thought.

Looking at the reflection standing next to his own whom he now was beginning to refer to as 'Mirror Ginny', Harry smirked before waving the arm she had a hold on up and down.

Mirror Ginny frowned but didn't let go of his arm. Finally seeming to tire of his game after a fourth or fifth repetition, she grabbed his arm in a vice-like grip and yanked it back down to his side. She then wrapped her arms around his and held it close to her body before gracing him with a cheeky grin in the mirror.

With that arm immobilized Harry reached across his body with his other hand and coped a feel of her left 'flask'. Mirror Ginny's eyes widened at this, but as Harry continued his caresses she leaned into it while worrying her top lip between her teeth. This continued for several minutes before she let go of his immobilized arm with one hand and prized his hand off of her chest.

_If only you had been there my dear_

_We could have shared this together_

Grinning slyly Mirror Ginny began to drift around behind him. In response Harry tried to turn to keep her in view, but her hands grabbing his hips, twisting him back to facing square toward the mirror. She then stepped entirely behind him, causing all but her hands to disappear from his sight. Finally those slid off him, leaving Harry feeling strangely lonely.

The feeling didn't last long, however.

_No mortal was meant to know such wander_

_One look in the mirror told me so._

Soon, a pair of small, satin gloved, feminine hands took the place of those that had been on his hips. At the same time a veiled face appeared from behind him, the chin coming to rest on his right shoulder as the gloved hands traveled up his chest pulling Harry tightly against the figure behind.

_Come darkness I'll see her again_

It was his Lady who held him in a tight embrace. She shifted Her head on his shoulder, tilting it so Her veil covering Her face to drift to the side, exposing crimson lips that moved to caress his ear.

"Did you enjoy our games tonight, Harry?" She quietly whispered as her breath tickled the hair on his neck. The sent of Amortentia that hit him at her words nearly floored him, causing him to lean further back on his Lady for support.

"Want Ginny.", was all his muzzled mind could create as a reply.

The eyes behind the veil widened in disbelief. "Your Lady knows all and has seen your heart. You don't love her. You are going to dump her tomorrow, aren't you?"

His Lady's words penetrated the fog in his mind enough for it to pain him, and he felt a tear run down his cheek even as the latest wind of Amortentia blasted his mind.

He felt Her take his earlobe between Her teeth.

"Must protect…Ginny.", Harry spoke, the words coming slowly between gasps of pleasure as Her tongue and teeth worried at his ear.

Frowning, She released his ear before saying, "Protect her from who? She is in no more danger than anyone else. There is no Basilisk out to eat her this time."

Her hands moved toward the buttoned collar of his shirt as she continued Her ministrations. "You seem a little hot, my Intended. We need to get you out of these dirty, sweaty clothes."

Harry struggled to find his reason as Her lips moved further down his neck. Several crimson colored locks of hair escaped the shadow of her veil to cover his shoulder as she left gentle nips and butterfly kisses on Her way towards the top of his now almost-unbuttoned collar.

Actually, she seemed to be having a hard time with the collar.

"Protect… protect Ginny from Tom!", Harry finally blurted out, his mind several sentences in comprehension behind his Lady.

"Ripppppppppp!"

The top collar button, as well as all the other buttons on his shirt ceased to be a problem for Her as they all went flying across the room when She tore it. Left standing with his arms trapped in the sleeves of his ruined shirt Harry saw the eyes of Her reflection narrow as She wrapped her arms over his and around his chest.

"And how could Voldemort hurt her when she has you around for protection?" She asked, before Her lips returned to their former work.

"Spies… his… Snape and… my mind he sees… inside. Wants to hurt… use Ginny…", Harry eloquently stated, not paying any attention to the fact that She knew Voldemort's real name.

Her lips seemed to frown around the skin of the shoulder blade She was nibbling at before releasing it with a soft 'pop'. Her hands began to drift lower as She sighed, saying, "You aren't thinking too good. Your pants must be too tight for your brain to think. Besides," She went on as she unbuckled his belt, "I already know your heart, and if you join me as my Consort then you will never need to worry about him being in your mind again."

"Oc….occol?"

"Yes, love. Natural Occlumency. I can give you natural barriers against Legilimency, as well as powerful weapons and spells amongst other things. Don't you remember? I told you all this before. Just like the last time we were together. Just like this."

_Yes I'm gonna go_

_Cause now I know._

"You do want what I have to offer you, don't you? My Intended?", his Lady asked sweetly.

"Protect Ginny!", Harry gasped out while flinching as her tongue hit a spot at the junction of his neck and collar bone that had been bothering him for months. Harry vaguely remembered scratching at it every so often when his shirt would rub on it, but repeated investigation in the mirror of the spot and his clothes never revealed anything.

The pleasure of her caress soothed the itch, bringing back memories of other times She had done the same, but then creating another, more persistent itch within his being.

Just like She had before.

'Are those wounds… on my…'

"Click, click, click, click…"

Something coming around his right side blocked his view of his Lady. Struggling to focus on what it was he realized that it was She Herself. She began to pull him forward as she leaned in, Her chin seemed to elongate, extending below the line of her veil.

_I love the night_

_The day is okay, and the sun can be fun_

_But I live to see those rays slip away_

Her face stopping an inch from his and Harry was stunned to finally see her eyes through the veil.

Her yellow, vertical slit eyes. Like a Basilisk.

"Yes, you will." She said laying Her head against his chest as Her fangs scratch his neck.

_I love the night_

_I love the night_

And then the world went black.

_-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

This story was brought on by listening to a lot more Blue Oyster Cult than is probably healthy and because some have pointed out my other work is supposed to be Harry/Ginny but lacking a lot of Ginny at present.

Additionally, an 'M' rated version of this story will be made available soon. It will have the same name, but will be marked as '(Smut Edition)', to help people identify it who aren't paying attention to their filter settings.

For those of you waiting for me to post something for 'Resort to Stratagem' I ask for patience. I have 57 chapters worth of outline completed, and I just need to buckle down and start churning it out so my beta will have something to finally work on.

Or maybe I should go back to listening to Manowar constantly. That puts me in the mood to write 'Stratagem'.


	2. The Tide is High

I Love The Night: Snogging Edition

**Chap #2: The Tide Is High**

Synopsis: With Dumbledore's murder at the end of his 6th year, Harry has some choices to make. To bad a young vampire will be making most of them for him…

A/N: Replaced Justin Finch-Fletchley with Michael Conner, as the former was in Hufflepuff, not Ravenclaw, and Michael was the one who went out with, then dumped Ginny for Cho Chang after a Ravenclaw loss to Gryffindor in Quidditch.

Disclaimer: I'll let you know if I own any of this, but as far as this chapter goes I own nothing. None of what you see her is mine. It belongs to J.K. Rowling, except the quoted song in the title which belongs to the band 'Blondie' (and their label) owns.

Harry's shirtless body was lying comfortably stretched out above the covers of a king-sized canopy bed done in Gryffindor colors in the Room of Requirement. His eyes were half-closed while pillows behind his back helped prop him up. Draped over him was a veiled, white dress wearing young lady, her face nestled into the junction of his neck and shoulder. Her dress seemed somewhat abbreviated, giving the impression of almost being lingerie itself, and that she and Harry were bride and groom who, having arrived at their honeymoon suite were about to enjoy the first fruits of their love.

Harry's face and exposed torso were extremely pale, however, and the cause of this was readily apparent if you took into account the fact that the bride's veil hid from sight the pair of fangs that were entirely sheathed in Harry flesh, puncturing a main artery that sent blood to his brain.

'Almost done.' thought the vampire. 'Bride, you may "Kiss" the groom.' She giggled, the sound of which was muffled by Harry's body, and which elicited a soft moan from him.

Retracting her fangs from him she sat up. She lifted her leg and straddled his waist before reaching with both hands to throw her veil back. Placing her hands over his sternum she pushed them forward over his chest while her back arched, causing a pleasant friction as she dragged herself across his lean, bare chest until she was face to face with him.

Looking into his half-lidded eyes she cupped the back of his head with both hands before leaning forward to place a chaste kiss on his lips with her blood covered ones.

Harry scented the blood and instinctively moistened his lips. Making plaintive moans and shifting slightly under her the vampire recognized the signs and proceeded to French kiss him as her fangs extended again. While their tongues' wrestled she began to reverse the flow in her fangs, causing Harry's own now-modified blood to return to him.

Harry now licked at her fangs wildly while the vampire caressed his throat to help him swallow. After he had gotten several mouthfuls she pulled away from him saying, "Wait now. Save the rest for later."

Shortly thereafter the blood reached his stomach and Harry's eyes rolled back in his head as the Kiss began to take hold. Climbing back over him to her side of the bed she propped her head up against the pillow and began to watch over his transformation.

'I hope I didn't forget anything', she thought to herself. 'It's the third consecutive full moon that I've drank from him, this time I drained him of almost all his blood – mmmmmm, tasty – and I returned some to him so that it will begin the process in his stomach. Everything is done. The blood is in his empty stomach and… ah bloody hell!'

At this point she noticed that Harry's face, which had begun to regain some of its color, had suddenly turned a rather sickening shade of green. Jumping up she ran around to his side of the bed, high heels clattering as she willed the Room to provide that which she so desperately needed. The nightstand on Harry's side of the bed morphed into a toilet just a second before Harry rolled over and vomited up whatever was left in his stomach.

'Damn it, I forgot to vanish the contents of his stomach before giving him back the blood. Stupid, stupid, stupid!' she berated herself as she helped hold him steady as best as she could in her rather impractical outfit.

She considered the consequences of forgetting this step carefully before deciding that it didn't really matter. The modified blood would have already been absorbed by the stomach lining before he had the reaction he was having now, and the charm used to banish the stomachs contents was a relatively new step in vampire creation as it was simply a standard healers spell which had been adapted to this purpose by vampires so that there would be less of a mess to be cleaned up later.

Considering Harry would be having his mouth near her soon, however, she would have to do something about the after effects.

When Harry was done she flushed the conjured toilet before resting him back on the bed and casting several cleaning and breath freshening charms on his clothes and mouth. Crawling back over him to her pervious position she noted that he was breaking out in a cold sweat, as was usual when a new vampire is converted.

Wiping a conjured cloth over his sweating brow the vampire continued to monitor Harry's transformation as his movement stilled.

'Not breathing… check. No pulse... check. Still sweating… check. Fever? Well the book said that it sometimes happens. I suppose the vomiting didn't help.' she thought to herself.

Harry's back bow out as if he was trying to hit the top of the bed canopy with his navel, his lungs sucking up a huge amount of air.

"Here it goes!", said the vampire.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!", Harry screamed with every fiber of his being. The pain from his transformation was one that all the newly turned experienced as the new genetic material in the blood the vampire returned to him rewrote that in the rest of his body. This caused every nerve to fire off messages of distress to his brain which itself was undergoing massive genetic modifications.

It was a thousand times more painful than a Cruciatus Curse.

Even as his lungs took in mighty gasps of air it was being modified so that he would no longer need to breath. Harry's stomach and digestive tract, while still useable for the consumption of food, would now become a secondary means of providing his body energy. Even as his scream began two quarter-inch wide tubes of smooth muscle tissue formed on the outside of his stomach and burrowed toward his kidneys. By the time his lungs filled again to give voice once more to his excruciating pain another pair of the same sized tubes were tunneling their way up from his kidneys along the inside of his spinal column toward the scars where the vampire had drank from him before.

Elsewhere in his body his other changes took place. Most of the marrow in his bones responsible for making the cells in his blood, and almost all of his body fat were cannibalized to make the material and energy for the modifications, while glands to exude Amortentia-like aphrodisiacs with his body sweat formed under his skin.

Sacs of paralyzing venom formed in the now mostly-redundant spaces of some of his naval cavity. At the same time, his future retractable fangs that would connect to these sacs as well as the feeding tubes now making their way up his neck started emerging from the front of his upper jaw and turned to curve down past his incisors.

Harry's heart, which had up until this point slowed its beating until not even a vampire's improved hearing could detect it finally stopped. The muscles rapidly contorted and heaved a-rhythmically as it began to reduce in size. Inside his heart the four chambers merged into one while some cartilage formed a circular paddle not unlike a muggle style paddle wheel or a submersible pump. The rest of the cartilage grew to reinforce the light sac that helped protect a normal humans heart, quickly encasing the reduced organ in a armored suit of cartilage scales

The female vampire sat, tears of sadness trailing down her face as her love writhed in excruciating pain. She herself had felt the same during one summer almost four years before, and were it not for the fact that she thought this would help him defeat Voldemort in the near future she would have been content to live her un-life until the end of time without him rather than inflict such pain on him.

'Just one more scream and the transformation will be complete. Then my love will rest a little while before I have to feed him and complete the Bonding.'

When the expected scream arrived she was not relieved, however. She sat up in horror as the scent of burning meat hit her senses due to Harry's curse scar beginning to boil and smoke.

"What the hell kind of fever is that?" she wondered aloud.

The moment Harry's heart ceased its transformation and stopped all movement a second voice issued another scream at an even higher pitch and volume. As his eyes opened to reveal vertically slit-ed eyes with yellow irises a green vapor in the form of wailing person escaped the sizzling scar. Finally, when his fangs finished forming and he ejected his first blast of venom through them from his sacs, the ethereal figure blasted up, tearing a hole in the canopy before continuing straight up, its howls fading as its image faded from existence.

Harry's body slammed boneless-ly back onto the bed, his eyes and mouth slamming shut as complete unconsciousness enveloped him in its grip.

Peaking her head over the edge of the bed from where she had rolled to the floor in fear of Harry's head exploding, the vampire crawled back on next to him. Laying her head on his bare chest she listened for the faint sound of his new hearts propeller style 'whooshing' which would mean he had survived the transformation.

All she heard was silence.

Trying to silence the sound of her own pressurized circulatory system, she strained her senses even more. Realizing that his heart was doing absolutely nothing, she began to pound on his chest, hoping to loosen whatever was jammed.

A wail of despair pierced the air as she realized that Harry would not be joining her in un-life. The transformation had been too much for his body, and instead of giving him even more power with which to combat the Dark Lord Tom Riddle she had killed him.

Her Dame, the vampire who had turned her had warned her that she should wait and let her turn Harry. She had warned that there could be all kinds of complications and with his curse scar only she had the knowledge and experience to help him through it.

"'But he was my Intended!' I had told her. It was my place to turn him and make him my Consort! 'No other can be allowed to bond with him!', and in doing so I killed him!"

She cried on his chest, wetting it with her tears as she fought to come to terms with her failure.

So wrapped up in self-indictment was she, though, that she missed the faint sound of his heart beginning to pump the little blood he had around his body. However, she was not so far gone as to fail to notice when his chest began to rise and fall in the pattern of deep sleep that most vampires retain even when normal breathing is mostly unnecessary for such as they.

"You're alive?", she asked Harry incredulously, but his sleep was so deep he didn't react to her. She was torn between wanting to shower him with kisses or screaming at him at the top of her lungs, and so she settled on resting he head on his still moving chest and crying just as hard as she had a few moments ago.

At least her tears were tears of joy.

When she was fully wrung out she shifted so that she was once again lying against him, her nose nuzzling the two puncture marks she had marked his body with.

'You're mine!' she tried to communicate to his unconscious mind over the mental bond her vampire book told her that she was even now forming with him. As she had followed all the outlined steps needed to make him her Bonded, her Consort, and they would be able to send thoughts, feelings, and messages to each other over vast distances.

Feeling how cold Harry's body was she cast a wandless, silent warming charm over them. Then she banished the bed covers under them and resummoned them over their entwined bodies and with a sigh she tried to make them both comfortable before she closed her eyes.

Sleep for her would not come; however, as thoughts of how she had been kept apart from Harry the last few nights attacked her.

First, her love had followed the Headmaster on a wild adventure that almost killed them both a dozen times over, and on their return to the school the Headmaster actually was killed by the traitorous Prof. Snape.

The fighting that took place during the Headmaster's murder between the Order members guarding the school and the Death Eaters that had infiltrated it resulted in Bill Weasley having his face ripped to shreds by a werewolf. So she was once again forced to leave her Intended on the school grounds unprotected while having to accompany yet another Weasley male to St. Mungo's Hospital.

As had happened back during the Christmas break with Arthur getting attack by Voldemort's pet snake, Nagini, she had accompanied this Weasley male to the emergency room where healers fought an ineffective battle to remove the Lycanthropic poisons from his wound that would turn him into a Werewolf every full moon.

Sending out a wandless area-effect stunner she knocked out the medical staff before immediately sinking her fangs through his denim-covered pants leg. She started filtering the blood through her modified vampire kidneys, sucking his blood from the fang-pierced artery and injecting the purified (but no longer oxygenated) blood into a nearby vein through the other.

After an hour of working like a muggle kidney dialysis machine she figured that Bill was safe from ever having to suffer the effects of being a Werewolf. She then closed his leg wounds the usual way (by licking them). 'Fleur is going to be pleasantly surprised when she finds out he has a new erogenous zone.' she thought to herself. Looking at Bill's torn face made her wonder, however, if the Vella would still be interested in him now that some of his good looks were gone.

A small burst of wandless magic stood up and awoke the healers and medi-witches whose job she had just performed, and she smoked away from the room to take the place of her doppelganger in the waiting room.

Thankfully, unlike the last time she had to perform a medical miracle the stuff she had filtered out wasn't poisonous. Her vampire immunity protected her from the lycanthropic spore so instead of feeling sleepy, nauseated, and slightly hallucinogenic like the snake venom in Arthur had made her she now felt as if she had been licking an animal salt block the last hour. She felt incredibly thirsty, and really had to pee badly!

Making her excuses she rushed away to the bathroom before proceeding to the water cooler in the employee break room and drinking half the one gallon water tank. Then she returned to the waiting room to hear the healer in charge to explain Bill's condition

The trip to St. Mungo's wasn't a total loss as she nicked a few quarts of blood from the hospital's stores for when she needed to feed Harry and herself later that week, but she stilled had to smoke back to Hogwarts early to put the truth potion in the goblets of the students in time for breakfast that morning.

Smoking back to St. Mungo's she spent her time in the waiting room sleeping until Bill's condition was considered good and stable at which the various Order and family members went home or back to Hogworts by floo. She arrived back at the school before dinner with just enough time to get down to the kitchens and spike that evenings pumpkin juice with vodka before heading back upstairs to prep the Room of Requirement for the nights festivities.

Finally, she thought everything was running smoothly for Harry and her on their special night, and it was with much relief that she went to the Gryffindor Common Room to see him. However, even that wasn't to be. Noticing his downcast mood she performed a passive legimancy scan on him to determine what was wrong, and was more than a little surprised to discover that he was feeling down about deciding to dump Ginny!

The passive scan only allowed her to know what was at the forefront of his mind, and determining the reasons behind this turn of events was proving to be futile as he had good enough shields notice the intrusion. So she escaped from the area as soon as possible, not at all reassured of anything else going smoothly when she caught Harry's thoughts that this was probably the last time he would be kissing Ginny.

Cursing herself for leaving him alone that day and not returning to him previously erased memories (which might have been discovered by a legimens like Dumbledore or Snape during some 'lesson') she determined to see her plan through to the end. To that effect she grabbed her outfit for that night and returned to the Room of Requirement to get dressed.

Due to rumors that prefects and Aurors might be starting their nightly patrols early that evening (an actually intelligent precaution given recent events), she decided to smoke-travel up the outside of the castle to her destination. As she did so with several objects that she didn't dare cast spells shrinking spells on she had to take it slow, seeming to flow like heavy smoke out of the dorm room's cracked window thick as vapor from a steaming cauldron.

When she reached the battlements she made sure no one could see her before reforming into her normal body. Taking one last glance around a crenelation before heading inside she saw Remus Lupin approaching the Whopping Willow apparently on his way to spending a painful, lonely full moon that night without his Wolfsbane potion in the nearby Shrieking Shack.

Saddened by the fact that the traitorous DADA instructor and Potions Master Snape was still managing to inflict pain on others even in his absence, she had shaken her head before making her way to Room.

Upon entering she saw that the room had arranged itself into a rather large muggle-style studio apartment. A canopied bed in Gryffindor colors and two bed stands sat against one wall, while a bathroom and shower sat against the opposite.

Dominating the center of the room was an exact copy of the Mirror of Erised, a vanity and chair placed in front of it.

Laying out her evening outfit on the bed and her makeup kit on the vanity she snacked on some of the blood she had nicked from the hospital before rushing to take a shower. Washing and perfuming herself from her hair to her toes she quickly toweled off before heading off to the vanity to start on her hair. With wand and hairbrush she dried, combed, and gave a slight curl to the crimson locks that when kept straight would cascade down to the small of her back.

Then the age-old question reared its ugly head: 'Hair up, or down.'

She eyed the white, diaphanous shoulder length veil that was part of her outfit, and was reminded of the words of her Dame - the one who turned her years ago, regarding the hair of females in general.

'The veil is meant mainly to hide the hair of a woman as it is the glorious crown that all women wear. To hide it under a veil is to show modesty and knotting it up into tight curls simply makes it easier to keep it hidden or to often make one look more severe and business-like. Long and loose, trailing like a cape to blow free in the wind is the mark of a woman free of inhibitions and constraints.

For a female vampire, it is one more tool in her arsenal, the lure that helps enhance our humanity in the minds of men and distracts from the possibilities that we might be something more than we appear.

While some ignorant men in these liberated times might say that a 'woman's glory' is some other part of her anatomy – more than likely one of those used to store body fat, the truth is a woman shaved bald would have to be considerably gifted with these lesser 'glories' for any man to be attracted to her when placed next to one with long, luxurious hair. Unless of course the one with hair looks like a haddock. Or the bald one was wearing a black leather corset and stiletto jackboots…'

At the time her pre-teen brain couldn't fathom what her Dame was going on about, but terms such as 'Bull whip', 'Paddle', 'Cuffs' and 'Ball-Gag' stood out in her mind.

'More than two thousand years of un-life without a consort must give a gal time to experiment… or go nuts,' was her reflection upon her Dame's habits.

Returning from her woolgathering she decided to let 'her hair down' as it were, and started putting on a light coat of make-up. Finishing off the process with the application of a blood red lipstick she walked over to the bed and studied her outfit for the evening while mentally going over the letter her Dame had sent her with a package a month ago.

It was against her Dame's wishes that she was going to be the one to actually turn her Intended, her Dame pointing out her inexperience and the dangers Harry would be exposed to as her reasons. However, she was adamant in her desire to be the only one to know him in this manner and her Dame eventually relented.

Expressing a desire in her last letter to her Dame that she wanted a dress for the ceremony that was unique and represented the last twenty-five hundred years of vampire history she was given an overload of information on her possible choices.

Discarding her towel she slipped on her white V-string underwear before wrapping herself in what looked many square feet of thin, white silken material as was available in Egypt after the opening of the Silk Road. Her garment, a heavily modified Greek chiton, clung close to her body rather than loosely as the original version in wool or cotton tended to, while slits cut in the material toward the front of each thigh left her with better maneuverability than the originals tube-shaped skirt would.

Also, unlike the traditional chiton, her garment had gold embroidery around the lower edges near the floor. It neither wrapped around the entirety of her back nor attached with clasps over her shoulders, but rather the top seam stretched from a 'V' at the small of her back to wrapped under her armpits around to the front, covering her breast before being secured at the neck with a chain attached to a golden choker band, thereby leaving her back and shoulders uncovered.

As her Dame had always told her about dressing to attract the eyes of men 'Accentuate the mundane, and cover the naughty bits leaving just enough to the imagination to keep them interested!'

The thin silk material and choker of her chiton put a lot of pressure on her neck without the traditional girdle cord wrapping around her middle to give it some support, however, a latter muggle invention from another high point of vampire power held the solution.

Taking a long, strong white cord on the bed in her teeth she grabbed the golden colored clamshell shape of satin covered whalebone next to it and closed it around her middle below her breasts. Walking over to the Mirror of Erised she turned her back to it, and looking over her shoulder quickly laced the cord through the steel grommets before the Mirror decided to show her something besides her reflection. Shifting to look over her other shoulder she mockingly looked at the Mirror and asked 'So, does this narrow waist make my ass look big?" She frowned though when she noticed that the two ends of the satin material were still far apart.

With a gentile pop the white towel she had discarded morphed into a pair of four fingered gloved hands familiar to any muggleborn student that grew up watching television. The hands flew through the air, undoing the knot she had just finished making before running back over each crossing of the cord to take up the slack. The sudden tightening caused her to gasp, and the feel of someone's foot pushing on the middle of her back forced all the air out of her lungs and made her to panic for a moment before remembering more of her Dame's wisdom.

'If you don't feel like cursing your parents for giving you too many ribs or internal organs, or if you aren't cursing your self for ever eating more than a thimble of food at every meal up until now, the corset isn't tight enough! If you can't breathe don't worry, as a vampire you don't need to. That's why we can run around and snack on both muggle women, witches, and their men while wearing a corset, while all those ladies can do is scream and faint in them… or wear them to renaissance fairs. Anyway, we vampires make corsets look good!'

The disembodied hands finished their work and gave her the universal sign for okay before disappearing with a snap of their fingers. Looking in the Mirror to inspect the work she noted the cord had been replaced with a strip of golden, satin material done up in a rather large bow at the bottom of the rows of eyelets. Regarding the bow she remarked aloud 'Now my ass looks like a present.'

Moving back to the bed she inspected the remaining garments. Her Dame had sent her several items for the ceremony carefully chosen to match her wishes for the outfit while also fitting the muggle saying 'something old, something new, something barrowed, and something blue'.

'Something old' happened to be several items of gold-plated bronze over two thousand years old. Upper arm bracers, a solid balteus belt, and a choker with a large onyx circle in the center completed the jewelry of a Priestess of Osiris.

The 'new' she had gotten for herself. V-string underwear was a new style of fashion which only muggle women had. She had to order it special through muggle means from some woman named Victoria, who thankfully could keep a Secret.

Turning to the 'borrowed' she sighed. Unfortunately, both she and her Dame were the same shoe size and so she had been loaned a pair of white, 4" stiletto heeled sandals that looked like they were rather painful to wear. The golden key symbol on the front webbing of the sandals and dangling on a chain behind the ankle straps wear kind of cute, though.

"'Penthouse size seven', maybe Penthouse is the style?"

Before attaching her Penthouse shoes, which her Dame swore were the height of fashion but looked like muggle torture devices, she put on the item that would fulfill the 'something blue' portion of her outfit. Carefully stretching the material she stepped through her blue and white garter so that it ran up to about the middle of her right thigh where it would peek out when she walked in her dress.

Attaching her sandals she took a few coltish steps about the room before deciding that as long as she didn't try to move or turn too fast she wouldn't trip. Carefully turning around she made her way back to the bed to grab the last two pieces of her outfit before moving them to the vanity, her heels loudly clicking against the tile floor all the while.

Using several carefully placed pins and sticking charms she attached first her shoulder-length veil, then a plain crown of gold.

'This crown is your life, my dear,' her Dame had told her years ago. 'It marks your rank as a vampire, and should be worn when in the company of others of our kind. It is like having your OWL and NEWT scores, Gringotts Vault Key, and the deed to your home all in one. As you grow in power and experience it will change to reflect this, and other vampires will know immediately where you are in relation to them.'

Her dame went on to say that the crowns became larger in size and more elaborate in design based on the actions, age, and magical power of the vampire wearing it. 'The bigger the hat, the more important the person, or in this case, the vampire!'

Studying herself in the Mirror she felt she'd done a good job achieving the look she wanted based on the guidelines she had been given. Her Dame had referred to it as the 'Madonna-Whore' look, though why a multi-millionaire muggle singer would have to work as a lady of the evening was completely beyond her.

With a last look in the Mirror she was ready to go after her intended. Moving toward the Room of Requirements door she began to send out small pulses of magic meant to attract her intended. She then dissipated herself into a fine mist, the ancient magical foci's built into her borrowed jewelry allowing her to do this on a grander scale than normal. When the mist she had formed grew to cover part of the three floors around the entrance to the Gryffindor common room she finally came into physical contact with her intended.

'Good.' She thought to herself. 'Now I just need to get rid of Tonks and that idiot Conner!'

A small flex of her magic through the magical foci's produced result far in excess of her intent on Tonks. A quick scan of her surface thoughts brought about images of a certain werewolf (who at that moment was probably looking very hairy and psychotic), and her desire to go be with him right then.

'Should I stop her?' she asked herself as she sent a streamer of mist to follow Tonks who was making a b-line toward the castle's front doors. 'Na, she'll come to her senses before she gets to the Shrieking Shack. Besides, she's an Auror, she can handle a little werewolf.'

Turning her attention back to Harry she began pouring her magical power into him. Re-materializing on the floor above him she began taking slow, measured steps back to the Room of Requirement, all the while increasing her compulsion on Harry. A quick scan of his mind showed though that this wasn't necessary, as her outfit was having the desired effect on him. By the time he was waiting in ambush for her at the Room's entrance her newly added sashay was causing his I.Q. to drop to dangerously low levels.

'Come in to my web, my brave little Gryffindor!' she thought to herself with a smile while looking coyly over her shoulder at him.

She had reset the Room to look like it had before, only without the vanity and darker with more mist. Her smoke-and-Mirror of Erised game almost fell apart as she had initially forgotten to make it show his hearts desire rather than hers, but both he and she forgot about this little snafu once the Mirror worked its magic.

The fact that Ginny was his true hearts desire perplexed her. The fact that Harry intended to dump her the next day didn't agree with the images the Mirror was showing. Deciding to follow through with her plan regardless she began playing games with him, trying to increase his pulse rate in preparation for his turning while scanning his mind for the reasons why he wanted to dump Ginny.

"Protect Ginny!", Harry had gasped out.

'Well, that makes sense… almost! This knuckle-head thinks if he dumps Ginny she will be protected from all the bad wizards out to kill him and all he holds dear. Obviously he's forgotten that Ginny's entire family has fought actively against Voldemort in the past, and so is in danger of being killed just because she has Weasley hair color! I honestly don't know why I bother… other than he's my Intended."

With those thoughts and a whispered promise to Harry she bit into him, beginning his Turning before moving his unresisting body over to the bed as fast as her Penthouse-shod feet allowed her. He weighed more than his slight figure made her think he was, and it took all her vampire strength to manhandle him onto the bed so that she could drain him at her leisure.

Coming to the end of her memories she reached over and slapped his chest, saying "You'd better be worth all the trouble!"

Dragging her palm back across his chest she was surprised when a cold hand slapped down on it, pinning it over his heart. Looking up at Harry's face she was struck speechless first at the sight of his long, pointed fangs, before becoming transfixed by his piercing, crimson gaze. When Harry chuckled deep in his throat she started to slide away causing him to growl and pin her arm above her head. She tried to roll away, but her shoes trapped her feet in the sheet as Harry rolled on top of her, pinning her other hand over head to join the first.

'Ginny… tease….", the nearly mindless Harry muttered as he bent forward to nuzzle at her throat.

Steeling herself for what was to come, she barred the old scars on her neck from her own turning before weakly asking him 'Please Harry, be gentle?'

The only thing she remembered later from the next few hours of pleasure-pain were the words "Ginny taste _good_…."


End file.
